By VANESSA HO, P-I REPORTER

Updated 10:00 pm, Friday, September 12, 2008

A former Ballard High School vice principal won a nearly $673,000 judgment against Seattle Public Schools this week, after a jury found that the district had poorly handled her sexual harassment claims and had retaliated against her.

According to court records filed in the King County case, Glenda Williams said she had been on track in 2003 to become a principal.

The jury made no ruling on Williams harassment claim, only on the district's response to it.

But she said her career derailed after she complained that her boss, then Ballard principal Method Odoemene, was persistently commenting on her appearance and pursuing her for dates.

The district reprimanded Odoemene and transferred Williams to Rainier Beach High School. Williams said the work environment was immediately hostile there, because the district didn't tell the school why she had been transferred.

As a solution, the district put Williams on an 11-week paid leave.

She was then assigned to Ingraham High School, where co-workers spread false rumors about her relationship with Odoemene and disparaged her by calling her "Miss Thang," Williams said in court records.

Her boss at the school also blamed her for the earlier transfers, saying she needed to "work harder."

When Williams complained about the hostility, she said the district didn't help her.

She filed the lawsuit in 2007. Four months later, she was demoted to a teacher's position and was assigned to sit in the library of Nathan Hale High School with no duties.

Later, her pay was cut to the equivalent of a teacher's aide. She is now on a list of substitute teachers for the district, but has never been called in.

"We couldn't be happier. She so needed to have her good name restored," Williams' attorney, Jean Huffington, said of the jury's decision, made Thursday.

"This is important, because she's been put through the wringer for so many years. At every building she's gone to, she's remembered as 'that sexual-harassment complainer' -- a troublemaker, someone who can't along."

The district argued that it had taken appropriate steps to remedy Williams' situations.

Officials said in court that Williams' demotion was unrelated to her harassment complaint or lawsuit, but was for an "unprofessional" conversation she had with a parent, Huffington said.

Williams had disputed the parent's allegations against her.

Seattle Public Schools officials could not be reached for comment Friday.